James Kim (74), an American businessman turned educator, once sat in the very last place that anyone in the world would wish to be: a cold, dank prison cell in Pyongyang, the godforsaken capital of North Korea.

Kim, who had emigrated from South Korea to the United States in the 1970s, had been a frequent visitor to Pyongyang over the years in pursuit of what, to many, seemed at best a quixotic cause. He wanted to start an international university in Pyongyang, with courses in English, an international faculty, computers, and Internet connections for all the students. Not only that — in the heart of the world’s most rigidly Communist country, Kim wanted his school to include that training ground for future capitalists: an MBA program.

During one of his trips to the capital in 1998, with North Korea in the midst of a famine that would eventually kill thousands, the state’s secret police arrested Kim. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il didn’t lock up the educator for being crazy. He got it in his head that the oddly persistent American — who at the time, among other things, was helping to feed starving North Koreans with deliveries of food aid from China — was a spy.

So for more than 40 days, Kim languished in a North Korean prison. An evangelical Christian, Kim wrote his last will and testament during those days, not knowing if he’d ever get out…

… PUST is — very much — a work in progress. But given how close it is to reality, issues like curriculum fade. The only one out there who thought there’d be an international university opening in Pyongyang in 2009, offering the equivalent of an MBA, with courses in English to some 600 students, was the same guy whom the North Koreans arrested in 1998.

James Kim and his cohorts will no doubt figure out a way to teach Econ 101. They’re going to teach Western economics, and finance, and management in one of the most backward economies in the world, one which again is having trouble feeding many of its citizens, according to recent reports from NGOs there.

That may seem like a rather hopeless task, but hope — not to mention faith — is something James Kim has in abundance. And given that he was sitting in a Pyongyang jail 11 years ago this month, who could blame him?

BEIJING // A terse announcement by North Korea’s No 2 last week that there had been no internal discussion on who would succeed the country’s ruler, Kim Jong Il, was probably a smoke screen to divert outside attention from the process of choosing an heir.

The attention is unwanted because it could show North Korea is in a period of some volatility. When asked about succession, Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s unicameral parliament, told Japan’s Kyodo News Agency on Thursday: “We haven’t even had discussion on such an issue in our country. Our republic’s people are strongly united around Chairman Kim.”

The latest statement, from the country’s second most powerful man, drew attention for the contradictory fact that party officials had been rallying around the heir apparent, Kim Jong Un, the leader’s youngest son.

The Daily NK internet newspaper website, run by North Korean defectors in Seoul, reported that sources from North Korea said last week that the succession process for Kim Jong Un has been suspended. Since then, pundits have been divided over what the apparent stall in the succession process might mean.

The issue even prompted South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Friday to speculate that it may be an indication that the situation in North Korea is “fluid”, hinting at a possible internal, factional row.

Some speculated that Mr Kim fell out of favour with the senior cadres of the Worker’s Party or the National Defence Commission, perhaps because the elders who make up the highest decision-making body in North Korea see Mr Kim as too young and inexperienced.

“Last year when Kim Jong Il was suffering from a stroke, the same Kyodo asked Kim Yong Nam about Kim Jong Il’s health. At that time, Kim Yong Nam said there was no problem with Kim Jong Il’s health. He even said such an allegation is a defamatory strategy from outside forces to undermine the nation. But we now all know that Kim Jong Il indeed had a health problem. So, it’s déjà vu,” Mr Cheong said.

Liu Ming, the director of International Relations Theory Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said: “My understanding is that after Kim Jong Il had a stroke last summer, North Korea prepared for a sudden change of leadership, including the “Dear Leader’s” death. But he now seems to have recovered well and [is in] very good health. So, there is no urgency. Therefore, they dropped the contingency arrangement for succession.”

Observers say it is possible North Korea is playing a two-track strategy: internally, it is speeding up the succession by continually unfolding the process; outwardly, it is diverting international attention from the drawn-out transfer of power.

Evidence for this comes from recent visitors to North Korea. “People who are authorised to deal with foreigners openly talk about Jong Un as the next leader,” said Leonid Petrov, a Russian specialist on North Korea, who is based at Australian National University.

“Kim Yong Nam is likely misrepresenting the situation for a foreign audience. It’s the usual tactic of a totalitarian regime to deny the obvious,” Mr Petrov said. The primary reason for North Korea to maintain a low profile for the succession, observers say, is to avoid outside criticism about the rare three-generation succession to the leadership of a modern state…

In an interview with Australia ’s SBS Worldview program, Danielle Chubb discusses the recent announcement by the World Food Program regarding shortfalls in food aid to North Korea and answers questions as to why the North Korean regime seems to be willing to incur the wrath of the international aid donor community in return for the continuation of its nuclear program.

She argues that the North Korean government views its top priority to be regime security and is thus willing to risk a decrease in food aid donations from the international community if it believes that it is able to gain itself a more favourable bargaining position through the provocative actions that have caused such discontent among international aid donors.

It is thus important to understand that the politics of how the North Korean government deals with the nuclear issue is actually quite independent of how it approaches the question of food aid. Relatedly, Danielle argues that while China, an important donor of aid to North Korea, has publicly condemned the most recent North Korean nuclear tests, the North Korean regime is aware that the Chinese government fears the collapse of the DPRK and would thus ultimately be unwilling to cut North Korea from all aid, as it perceives survival of the North Korean regime to be the most pressing issue… Download the MP3 audio file here…

* Danielle Chubb is a PhD Candidate in the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University in Canberra

Bill Clinton’s successful negotiation the release of two American journalists from a North Korean prison has been heralded as a sign that North Korea is interested in thawing out its relationship with the rest of the world. Clinton’s visit was also the first time in ages that Kim Il Jong has been seen alive. And this week, the North announced a few compromises with South Korea – including the resumption of limited tourism and a family reunion program.